


the smell of cold stone

by MFLuder



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, American Football, Autumn, Bisexual Dick Grayson, Blow Jobs, College Football, First Time Blow Jobs, Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, POV Alternating, Past Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Past Dick Grayson/Roy Harper, Past Dick Grayson/Wally West, Roy's eternal crush on Donna, frat boy Dick, future besties Jason and Roy, implied Donna/Kyle, implied Roy/Kory, implied Roy/Wally, referenced Jason/Kyle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:08:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26206165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MFLuder/pseuds/MFLuder
Summary: Their eyes meet on the quad one day; he’ll probably never see the frat boy again, but he’ll be nice fodder for Jason’s dreams at least.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 21
Kudos: 168
Collections: JayDick Summer Exchange 2020





	the smell of cold stone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abscission](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abscission/gifts).



> Title: "I was confusing learning with the smell of cold stone."
> 
> A treat based on this prompt: _Something set in autumn...whatever you like so long as the backdrop is crispy and chilly and Dick appears in one scene with a fluffy scarf/sweater and a giant mug of coffee and has cold fingers._
> 
> I'd call this M-lite. The focus isn't the sex, it's not particularly graphic or long, but I also didn't want to leave it out.

The first time Dick sees him, it’s while Dick is playing football on the quad with Garth, Roy, and Kory. He’s staring so hard at the guy sitting under campus’ famous sycamore that Garth ends up beaming him in the head with the ball and it’s only that and Roy’s ringing laugh that call him back from a strange fantasy where this not-so-little Red Riding Hood and he are walking hand in hand in the hallowed halls of Gotham U, like something out of _The Talented Mr. Ripley_. But, you know, without the murder.

“Dickie!” Roy hollers at him. “See a pretty girl or somethin’? Where’s your head at?”

Dick takes off his snapback and rubs at his temple where the football hit him. “Geesh, Garth, maybe wait to throw until a guy is looking?”

Garth’s shoulders simply shrug, and he smiles, big and wide. Garth’s the only one actually on the football team; second string quarterback. It’s his senior year and he knows he’s not going to be drafted, but Garth’s always loved the sport and it was enough to put him through college without debt. He’s going to be a marine biologist.

Dick tosses the football back, towards Roy, extra hard, just because his friend is giving him a hard time. Kory jumps over Roy, though, and captures it midair to Roy’s consternation. It leads to a tumble in the grass that Dick doubts either will escape from without grass stains.

The sun is hot, and Dick can feel sweat trickling down between his shoulder blades as he slides his hat back on after wiping at the sweat on his forehead. Gotham is muggy, the smell of old swampland seeping in, even to the campus that sits on the outskirts of the city, on the hill opposite Arkham Asylum.

The heat doesn’t seem to faze the boy who caught Dick’s eye, though. The brunet is sitting in a red hoodie, though it is unzipped, showing off a black tee underneath. A black backpack that looks heavy, laden with textbooks and a laptop, rests beside him. The tree cast shadows on his cheeks, making his face look almost gaunt, though the rest of his body is clearly not. He’s still immersed in his thick book, but Dick thinks he can see a hint of a smile gracing his plush lips.

Dick wonders if the smile is for the story or for the antics of his group.

“D!” calls out a voice, and when Dick turns away from the man under the tree, he sees Wally and Donna have joined the group. He waves and jogs over the few yards. Wally’s in a Gotham U cross-country tee and running shorts, sweat lines still faintly visible, like he didn’t change after practice. Donna is as impeccable as always, somehow stable on thick heeled boots that give her an additional three inches, a mini skirt, and a cable-knit crop sweater. Donna’s from the deep south, so the heat of Gotham’s back-to-school autumn never bothers her, either. Her mini backpack is gold and brown, some Louis Vuitton thing and she takes a small tablet out of it, engaging Kory in a conversation about one of their classes.

Dick takes a look at his group of friends and sighs happily. They all come from different places and backgrounds, but they met in freshman year American Government and have managed to stay friends through three more years of school despite different majors and the occasional dating row amongst them. In fact, Garth’s the only one Dick hasn’t dated or hooked up with in some form, but that’s because the man is straighter than a ruler and only has eyes for his long-time high school girlfriend, whom he calls _dolphin_ with no irony whatsoever. It’s stupidly sweet.

They make quite the image, a bunch of brunettes and redheads, with nary a brown-colored eye in the group, and he thinks that the boy under the tree would fit right in.

He looks back over at the sycamore and finds its been abandoned. He thinks he sees a glimpse of red slipping into the library, but it could be anyone.

He tunes back into some chatter from Wally about a house party off campus that weekend after the Gotham-New Jersey State game and the thought of a book-absorbed, dark-haired and blue-eyed boy slips from Dick’s mind.

~~~

The first time Jason sees him, it’s from halfway across the quad. He’s been out there for more than an hour, hiding under the shade of the tree, soaking in the ambiance – and the chance to be away from his roommate – while reading Donne for his poetry class, when one of the group steps a little close, laughter pealing over to him as a redhead caught a football, startling Jason from his reading.

When he looks up, though, it isn’t the redhead who catches his attention. Sure, that kid’s attractive enough, thick biceps bulging out of his tank, longer red hair gleaming almost blond in the sunlight, tall. But when Jason looks up, its right into the bluest eyes he’s only seen in movies. He wonders, briefly, if the guy is wearing contacts, for his eyes to be so vivid from this distance. Jason then lets his eyes roam and what greets him is some kind of preppy frat boy, complete with a blue snapback and a cropped muscle tee that he thinks is for one of the fraternities on campus. Instead of wearing jeans or shorts, though, he’s in leggings and between that and the short shirt, Jason is able to make out an ass that would make a porn star jealous. The guy’s skin is golden tan and his hair is so raven its almost blue. He’s well-muscled, but it’s defined, on the leaner side than his brunet friend throwing the ball.

Their eyes connect for a brief moment and there’s something electric that crackles between them. Jason turns back to his book, feeling the flush across his face.

He’s still watching, subtly, when the second dark-haired guy launches the ball right at the man he’s been starring at – and it hits him in the head

Jason does his best to hold back the chuckle that threatens to burst from him and instead buries his head deeper into his book, even as the two redheads begin to roll around on the grass in a play fight that looks more like flirting than any kind of wrestling Jason’s seen.

When he looks up next, he sees a whole gaggle of them have crowded and it seems they are done playing with the football. It’s an interesting mix of exceptionally pretty and tall people, all with dark hair or gingers. 

His watch beeps at him – ten minutes to his next class.

He shoves the book in his backpack and makes his way across the quad to the English department building behind the library; he decides he’ll take the shortcut through the library today, maybe grab a coffee in the café if the line isn’t too long.

He’ll probably never see the frat boy again, but he’ll be nice fodder for Jason’s dreams at least.

_If then thy gift of love were partial,  
That some to me, some should to others fall,  
Dear, I shall never have thee all._

~~~

It’s not for another month before Dick catches sight of that same red-hooded boy on campus, again. This time it’s at the homecoming game between Gotham U and Metropolis U and he only sees him because his red sweatshirt – which wouldn’t stick out on the Gotham side, colors of the school being black and red, after all – stands out amongst the bright blue and yellow of the Metropolis side. He’s next to a blonde girl in a Metropolis tank, her bust big and prominent. On his other side is a bored-looking boy in green. The two men definitely seem to have little interest, but the girl is cheering someone on, down on the field, a sign Dick can barely read in her hands – but he thinks it says Kent.

He looks up the Metropolis U roster on his phone and sees a freshman player named Conner Kent. The only question is the relation, then. Is the girl his girlfriend? Friend? Family? Maybe red hoodie is actually his boyfriend, cheering him on even though he’s not a fan of the game.

The thought makes something ache in Dick. He doesn’t even know his name, much less if the guy is gay or likes dudes, or people at all.

Then, the crowd roars and he sees Gotham just scored after a fifty-yard pass, and he’s swept back into the crowd by Roy who slips him a flask that he drinks from, and once more, the memory of a red sweatshirt fades from his thoughts.

~~~

The next time Jason sees the frat boy who got beamed in the head on the quad by his friend, it’s at the Homecoming game, being crowned Gotham U’s King before the game. By his side is the fiery redheaded girl with dark skin who’d been playing along with them that day. She looks stunning in a purple full length, slinky dress and a small faux tiara in her red curls. The frat boy looks equally as good in a black suit with a matching purple tie, the color only serving to deepen the blue shades of his hair and eyes. His bangs fall into his eyes as he accepts the tacky crown on his head.

“Did you hear their names called?” he asks Kyle and Kara who are bickering over whether to get food now or wait until half time with the rest of the stands.

“Who?” Kyle asks. He stands out like a sore thumb, one green engineering tee in the whole of the blue and yellow sea of Metropolis fans. Not like Jason is doing much better, his only concession to gameday spirit being the Metropolis U white tee he’s wearing under his usual hoodie. Kara had forced it on him. It has Conner’s number on the back, proudly made by Conner’s older brother, Clark, for them.

“Them,” he says, jutting his chin down at the Gotham U royalty.

“Nah, sorry.”

“Jason, you’re hopeless,” Kara pipes up, opening her program. There, on page five, is the whole court. Jason sees a lot of the group from the quad that day.

Donna Troy is the brunette who had joined them, the one in the skirt that barely reached her ass. Garth Shayeris is actually on the football team – the broad brunet. Kory Anders is queen – the redhead on the frat boy’s arm. And the frat boy, the most beautiful man Jason’s ever seen, is Richard “Dick” Grayson. 

Dick Grayson. It’s an oddly old-fashioned nickname and Jason thinks Dick must have a high tolerance for mockery. Either that, or he’s one of those people so well liked, no one can stand to make fun of him, even something as obvious as his name.

“Hmm,” he hums, not even realizing he’s doing it until he’s met with two pairs of eyes – one sparkling green and the other light blue – starring him down. “What?” he asks, brow furrowed.

“Okay, Jase. I’ve known you almost your whole life. Which one is it?” Kyle asks.

“Which one is it what?”

“The hot person who’s caught your eye. I’d know that look anywhere. I used to get it, remember?”

Jason flushes and crumples Kara’s poor program. Kyle takes it out of his hands. “Come on, I didn’t mean it like that.”

They’ve been broken up for three months, now. It had been relatively mutual, what with Jason going to Gotham U and Kyle deciding Metropolis U had the better art program and since he was going to double major in engineering and art, he might as well make it worth his time, right? It didn’t mean every time Jason saw him, that he didn’t feel a little bad.

Both of his friends lay a hand on his arms. “He didn’t, you know,” Kara says, taking the program back from Kyle. “Now, come on. Which hottie is it?”

Jason flushes harder, still, and refuses to answer, but when Kara’s finger lands on Dick’s face, something must give him away because she whistles. “When you fall, you fall hard, don’t cha, Jase? King of Gotham U? Even I’ve heard of Dick, and I’m a freshman at a whole other university.”

“I haven’t,” Kyle says, and he sounds smug about it. Jason’s not sure if he’s trying to support Jason, or rather feeling a bit gleeful that Dick can’t be all that.

“I know him because of Conner. They’re both in Gamma Epsilon and they had some kind of cross-campus thing before the school year started. See?” she points at the program. “Dick’s the president of the fraternity.”

She looks up and sets the program down, beginning to wrap her hair up into a ponytail. Jason can see small tracks of sweat beading down her neck. Gotham is significantly hotter than Metropolis, even though the towns are only forty minutes apart. “I could maybe arrange a meeting.”

“No,” both Jason and Kyle say. Jason keeps his eyes away from Kyle’s.

“Why not? If you two really are broken up, it doesn’t matter right? Or is there something you’re not telling me?” she eyeballs them, hands on her hips.

Jason shakes his head and he thinks Kyle is doing the same behind him.

“Alright, then. I know Conner will know about parties. Maybe they’ll have one big one between the schools. I’ll find out!”

By then, the court has walked off the field and the music signaling Metropolis’ team begins to play and Kara loses all interest in Jason’s love life as the players stream out the visitor’s side gate, picking up her sign for her cousin, instead. Jason lets himself forget Dick Grayson and his piercing blue eyes.

That night, drunk, and incredibly horny, he sucks down Kyle’s cock, reveling in the feel of his hands gripping Jason’s hair tight, swallowing him down all the way until he’s practically choking, gagging on it, and he jacks himself off but, selfishly, it’s not to Kyle’s pretty green eyes, but rather the thought of intense blue.

Kyle’s gone before he wakes up, a text reading: _I can’t do this again, Jason_.

Jason groans and goes back to bed, his poetry assignment left undone.

_Or if then thou gavest me all,  
All was but all, which thou hadst then;  
But if in thy heart, since, there be or shall  
New love created be, by other men_

~~~

The next time Dick saw Red Hood – as he’d taken to calling him in his mind for lack of a name – Gotham’s summer has faded into a brisk autumn, the kind that left the trees turning into burnished gold and crimson overnight, with pinecones on the ground to be smooshed underfoot and turned aromatic, to grass still green, but chilly with dew in the morning. The kind of autumn when you needed a jacket in the morning but a tank top in mid-afternoon. The air on campus permanently smelled of pumpkin spice and the wind occasionally had a sharp tang to it, like ice was just waiting to steal their breath away.

The ivy on the English Department is slowly turning copper and the old stone building looms large. Dick is on his way to his technical report writing class – the one thing he dreaded most about his criminal justice curriculum, and so he’d put it off as long as he could. It wasn’t that he was a bad writer – Dick just felt more comfortable in the lab or at a computer, typing code. Words weren’t foreign, but they didn’t flow like numbers and chemical compounds did. Certainly not in a way that made his writing easy enough to read for non-scientists, which he needed, if he was ever going to be an FBI agent.

He makes his way to Professor Dartmouth’s office and stumbles into someone just exiting the room. It feels like crashing into a brick wall, even at a slow pace.

It was him – the pretty brunet in the red hood and with sea-colored blue eyes. He is taller this close up; several inches taller, and broader, than Dick. He looks more like he should be leaving the gym than an office that smelled of wood and books.

“My bad,” he says with an apologetic smile, stepping aside to let Hood out.

“Excuse me,” Red Hood mumbles.

“Jason, wait,” the professor calls out. “Dick, come in. Actually, this is good timing.”

Dick feels his eyebrows raise and he looks over at Red Hood – _Jason_ – curious, only to be met with a metaphorical brick wall this time, as the other man stares straight-forward at the teacher, not even glancing at Dick.

Well, geesh. You run into a guy once and—

Professor Dartmouth is a stereotypical professor; reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, elbow patches on his sleeves, a crooked collar and a warm smile cased in a soft face. He looks over said glasses at them, now. “Dick, meet Jason. He’s one of our promising English students. Jason, this is Dick Grayson, an unfortunate participant in one of my classes.”

“Professor,” Dick starts, but is cut off by a waving hand.

“It’s alright for English to not be your thing, Dick. Lord knows, computer programming isn’t mine.” The man turns to Jason. “Jason, I think you said you wanted to be a teacher eventually, right?”

“Yes, sir,” the other boy says, his voice deep but quiet.

“Well, if Mr. Grayson agrees, here, I’d like you to tutor him for his class.”

Dick looks at the professor, a bit aghast. “Sir, I—”

“I know, I know, Dick. You’re not going to fail the class. I understand. However, I also understand that this is the only class you’ve got less than an A in. And in fact, the only class in four years that you haven’t pulled an A. One of your mentors reached out to me on your behalf. You don’t have to accept tutoring – it will not hinder your time here or influence your letters of recommendation. However, I know from them, you’ve been upset with your performance. Why not accept a little help, if that’s what it takes to get you through this class?”

Dick’s jaw sets. “Yes, Professor.”

“Jason?”

Jason shrugs, his shoulders moving up and down in one brief movement. “What does he need help with?” Jason finally looks at him, giving him the once over. Dick feels weirdly self-conscious about his snapback and blue hoodie with leggings, even though Jason is dressed as casually as he is in jeans and his ever-present red sweatshirt.

“Technical report writing,” he mumbles, ashamed.

Jason blinks, then nods. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Great!” Professor Dartmouth claps his hands once and then makes a shooing gesture at them. “Now out, you two. I’ve got fifteen minutes before class and I intend to use them.”

Both of them find themselves out in the English Department’s lobby, a bored student worker sitting on her phone as their only witness.

“Are you sure,” Dick says, rubbing a hand at the base of his neck. “I mean, I don’t really need the help, I’ll manage…”

Jason shrugs, gives off that small amused smile that Dick recalls from that first time in the quad. “I don’t mind. I don’t do any extracurriculars anyway, unless my friend Kara drags me somewhere. But she has new friends over at Metropolis U, so mostly I do homework and read.” Then he grins, and the expression turns his face from handsome to stunning for a split second. “Besides. I’ll use any chance to stay away from my roommate.”

Dick laughs. “Roommate woes, huh? I remember that from before I moved off campus. Now I just live with my slob of a best friend. At least we’re both slobs though.”

Jason wrinkles his nose and it's… _adorable_.

“Let me guess, a neat freak?” Dick teases, jabbing his elbow, gently, into Jason’s side.

It meets resistance and fuck if Dick doesn’t want to see what kind of muscles are packed under those baggy layers.

“I wouldn’t say _freak_ ,” Jason mumbles, but the blush across his nose not only reveals freckles but also the fact that Dick is probably right.

Dick laughs again. “It’s alright. We can meet in the library for now. If you ever end up needing to come over, I’ll make sure Roy and I clean, just for you. Here, give me your phone.”

They trade numbers and Dick stealthily puts his in as Dick Grayson surrounded by stars and heart emojis, just to be obnoxious. He fills in the “company” line with KID WHO NEEDS ENGLISH HELP.

“Call me,” he says, and he can’t help but say it in his flirty voice, the one Kory once said would made her wet almost instantly, just to watch Jason blush.

Then, like a child with his first crush, he practically skips down the hall to his class.

~~~

A month after Jason has started tutoring Dick through his class, which, honestly, mostly consists of getting Dick to use present tense and explaining chemical reactions in layman terms, and a few grammar and spelling changes, he’s also privy to a lot of the boy’s backstory and goals.

Dick is easy to talk with, almost never silent himself, somehow always in constant motion, even though he’s never fidgeting per se. It’s just this strange sense of fluidity as he shifts from the chair to walking behind Jason, to sitting on the edge of the thick library table, to grabbing them coffees at the café on late nights when both of them sit mostly in silence and complete their homework.

He knows now that Dick is actually the ward of the famous Bruce Wayne, the one whose name is plastered over Gotham U’s library, Gotham’s most noted bachelor and billionaire.

When Kara finds that out, she begs him to fall in love and buy her a new car when his sugar daddy puts out, because she’s currently having to get rides with Conner given her old Ford crapped out on her and Clark can’t justify signing another loan right then, not with an uncertain yield the next summer. Jason ends up crying he laughs so hard at her ridiculousness.

He knows Dick cares nothing about his adopted dad’s money, though he seems to understand his privilege even so, and has zero interest in Wayne Industries, instead finishing a double major in criminal justice and psychology in the hopes of one day becoming a profiler for the FBI.

Jason’s not a fan of cops, but if anyone would be a good one, he thinks it’d be Dick Grayson. The boy is so wholesome, Jason thinks he’d fit right in with the Kents and their midwestern charm. He thinks about introducing them, maybe asking Dick if he’d like to come over to dinner sometime, but even though Kara and Conner know about Jason tutoring Dick, he wants to keep the guy to himself a little longer. He doesn’t need Dick falling in love with Kara, like all of his crushes but Kyle did in high school.

He also finds out that Dick has two younger siblings, one in high school still – though he says Tim could be in college by now but decided he didn’t want to be the freak that graduated at fifteen – and one who is only ten, Damian. He speaks about them so fondly; it almost makes Jason wish he had siblings. Then again, the Kents have taken Jason in as much as anyone could without legally adopting him, letting him crash on their couch during high school, whenever his stepmom got high; right up to the point of supporting his emancipation at sixteen and helping him find a job and an apartment in Metropolis.

It's easy between them, whatever it is, and every time their eyes catch, during a pause in conversation, or over their laptops as each work on various assignments, Jason feels himself grow aroused, heat pooling in his gut. It’s funny because Dick almost treats him like a younger brother, teasing, asking him about his friends and family, about his goals. They’re questions he might get on a first date, too, but the way Dick asks them, it’s like he cares, _actually_ is interested in knowing the answer, not just in getting the response to have his own comment ready.

But underneath it all, is something simmering that isn’t brotherly at all. Jason simply can’t bring himself to ask if Dick is dating anyone, if Dick is into girls or guys or people, generally. He hears about his friends, Wally and Donna, Roy, Kory, and Garth, but they seem as close knit as a family, rather than friends. Even though Dick also mentioned the weird love triangle between Kory and Roy and Donna. He seemed wistful, then, but Jason couldn’t tell over who.

Time ticks down and soon enough midterms are over. Dick comes back with his grade lifted to a B and they celebrate with more coffee and homework, Dick preparing for his forensic psychology midterm and Jason writing his poetry midterm analyzing the themes in Donne’s poetry as compared to Milton’s.

The nights in Gotham have gotten cooler, wind promising snow, and the mornings are no longer damp but frosty. Jason’s taken to wearing his brown leather jacket over one of his hoodies and Dick is such a cliché, it’s like he walked straight out of the 1950’s. While during the summer months he wore classic frat boy gear, now he wears cashmere sweaters and jeans that looked pressed. The first time Dick comes tumbling into the library café, shivering in a midnight blue sweater and a plaid scarf around his neck, Jason thinks he will combust. He stands quickly, apologizing as he begs off to go smoke.

Two minutes later, a hand falls on his jacket sleeve. “You smoke?” Dick asks.

Jason blushes and takes another drag, harder. “Bad habit, I know. What are you doing out here, you only just got inside. You’re cold.”

“Anna’s keeping an eye on our stuff,” Dick says, folding his hands into his pockets, talking about their favorite blue-haired barista. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. You seemed…off?”

Jason rolls his eyes, not entirely unkindly. He notices Dick shiver again and starts to shrug his jacket off. “Here. If you’re not going to have any sense of self-preservation, I’ll have to do it for you.”

Dick grudgingly accepts the coat and he leans back against the cold brick as Jason continues to smoke his cigarette. “I’ve never smelled it on you.”

“What?” Jason asks.”

“Smoke. You always just smell like…like autumn, somehow.”

Jason looks down at Dick incredulously, taking in his furrowed brow and wet lips, like he’s just licked them. Fuck, Dick is beautiful, drowning in his jacket like he’s the girlfriend of the bad boy. Which weirdly makes Jason the bad boy and that’s both fitting and not.

Dick burrows into his leather jacket further and Jason tries not to laugh. He can still see the plaid scarf sticking over the collar along with Dick’s cherry nose.

“I mean it. You smell like leaves and patchouli and…cinnamon? Maybe vanilla.”

“And you, Dick, smell like a frat boy who uses axe body spray when I know you can afford better.” Jason smiles.

Dick wrinkles his nose at him. “Okay, have you been talking to Roy behind my back?”

“No, but if it’s something he’d say, then I think he and I would be best friends.”

Dick turns back to face the sidewalk, grumping something about how his friends were ganging up on him.

He finishes his cigarette and manhandles Dick back into the warm café, the smell of warm bread and sweets hitting as strong as the coffee. He insists on paying for Dick’s drink, telling his pupil to sit and get warm. He brings back a mulled cider and watches bliss cross his pretty boy features. Dick’s body melts, like he’s slowly thawing. His long, thin fingers clutch the Styrofoam cup.

“Thanks, Jay,” Dick says. “My hands were cold.”

Jason maybe falls a little more hopelessly in love at the nickname, that Dick so carelessly tossed it out there, with the familiarity of people who have known each other for years instead of only a month.

He hides his smile behind his computer. Dick wears his jacket all night.

_This new love may beget new fears,  
For, this love was not vowed by thee.  
And yet it was, thy gift being general,  
The ground, thy heart is mine; whatever shall  
Grow there, dear, I should have it all._

~~~

It’s Halloween night and Gamma Epsilon is throwing a killer party.

 _Literally_. Everyone was supposed to come dressed up as some sort of fictional or historical killer. Just from where Dick’s standing, he can see three Hannibal masks, two Freddy Krugers, and like, five Scream guys.

It’s also a party they’re throwing at the Gotham U fraternity house, but it’s partnered with their brothers across the river, Metropolis U’s Gamma Epsilon chapter. The house is packed so tight, Dick can barely breathe. He’s the life of the party, as he has to be as chapter president, but he’s already feeling it wear on him and he’s wishing he could have joined Kory and them at the bars downtown instead. He knows they’ll be by later, but it’s not the same. Last year, when he was only VP, he had more flexibility.

He’d also been dating Kory at the time and looking forward to what they would do at the end of the night.

Now, he’s single which should probably make him more excited. After all, there’s plenty of slutty Nurse Ratched’s and Annie Wilkes’ which should be a contradiction, but somehow the sorority girls manage it with frumpy sweaters cut off into crop tops and brown miniskirts with heeled loafers.

But Dick’s thoughts are constantly consumed by a nineteen-year-old English major with dreams of becoming a professor one day. He hasn’t said anything, barely flirted even; the tutoring has helped him get to know Jason, but he also doesn’t want to put the kid in a weird spot. Roy’s constantly teasing him for not going after freshman cock – _have you gazed upon those glorious thighs of hi_ s Roy asks every other day – but Dick doesn’t want to hurt this fragile friendship they have, even as he’s growing more and more frustrated with his libido.

He’s chatting with the Metropolis U’s chapter president when he sees a familiar red hoodie come in the front door. Dick excuses himself, grabbing a beer to slip in his pocket and a tray of random unopened drinks to bring to Jason and his friends.

“You came,” Dick says, trying to lessen his smile a bit so Jason doesn’t think he’s weird. “I like your costume; Big Bad Wolf, right?”

Jason is wearing his hoodie as usual, but he’s got a pair of ears on a headband and furry mittens shaped like giant paws. He nods.

“Jason’s not much of a costume guy,” says a shorter brunet next to Jason, offering his hand. He’s attractive enough and Dick remembers him from Homecoming, when he looked up the other team’s roster – he plays football, a freshman linebacker, deceptively strong for his size. “Hi, I’m Conner. I actually go to Metropolis U – I’m in Gamma Epsilon there. I dragged him out. Also, I gotta ask, who are dressed as? Because it’s fucking hot as hell.”

Dick smirks, smoothing his hands over his black leotard and then patting his blonde curly wig. “Roxie Hart from the play _Chicago_. Tonight seemed like a good night for fishnets.

“Well, it’s working for you,” Conner laughs, eyeing Dick up and down appreciatively, though not overtly sexually.

Conner is dressed as a killer bee in a yellow and black striped shirt and a pair of bumblebee-like antennae. He’s also got a name tag on that says _buzzkill_. Dick laughs.  


“I’m Dick Grayson, chapter president. Also, Jason’s sorry excuse for a tutoree.” He smiles back at the group, even while noticing Jason looks uncomfortable.

“I’m Kara, Conner’s cousin and Jason’s friend from high school,” the blonde attached to Jason’s side says. She’s wearing a cute black dress that has barbie dolls attached to it, each looking like they’ve been murdered, with blood and little plastic knives and guns in between the dolls. “I’ve heard a lot about you!”

Dick eyes her costume. “Who are you dressed as?”

She smiles, the look lighting up the whole room like a sunbeam. “I’m the Barbie killer! Karla Homolka and her husband were known as the Barbie and Ken killers because of their attractiveness.” 

“Clever,” Dick nods. Now that she’s said it, he knows the case. He appreciates the twist on it, though, that she didn’t dress up as Karla, but rather took the name literally.

He holds out the tray. “You guys want something to drink?”

Kara looks them over carefully, picking out a sweet wine cooler. Conner takes a Bush Light, and Jason waves him off.

“You don’t drink?” Dick asks, curious.

“I do. I’m just not a beer guy, really.”

Kara leans over to Dick and dramatically whispers, “He’s a whiskey guy, if you have any.”

“Kara!” Jason exclaims, using his fluffy paws to bat at his friend and try to cover her mouth.

Dick laughs. “Well, Jay, why don’t you let your friends mingle, and you and I can find the hard stuff, hmm?”

Jason follows him to the kitchen where he pulls out a bottle of Jameson from a hidden cupboard. “This do?”

“Yeah,” Jason says. “I mean, it’s not even open, though, you don’t have too—”

“Tt,” Dick makes a noise that’s an imitation of his brother’s. “Are you kidding me? Roy’s not here yet, so I need to have someone else to drink this with.”

Two shots in, they both wander back to the party, whiskey and cokes in their hands. Dick’s stopped by some of his other more casual friends and introduces them to Jason. They make their way back around the party to Jason’s friends, Dick tugging Jason along every time he tries to beg off, to say something like _I should let you..._

Honestly, Dick’s getting a little drunk, having been drinking before Jason and his friends arrived, and once he’s seen the tail clipped to Jason’s jeans, completing the whole Big Bad Wolf thing, he hasn’t quite wanted to let Jason go, not when he’s shaking his ass out there for everyone to see. Don’t think Dick hasn’t noticed the looks from both men _and_ women at the party.

When they make their way back to Kara and Conner, another boy has joined them, this one tall and lanky. He’s wearing a shirt that proclaims THIS IS MY COSTUME and he’s torn a piece of masking tape off and written _KILLER_ on it, placing it above the _my_ and _costume_ with an arrow pointing down. He raises his eyebrows.

Kara rolls her eyes. “Kyle thinks he’s hilarious. He’s an art major,” she says, like that explains everything. Maybe it does.

The boy – Kyle – shifts uncomfortably once Dick and Jason have arrived though. Jason looks once at him and says, softer than anything he’s ever heard from him, “Hey, Kyle.”

“Jason,” Kyle responds, short and crisp, before he walks away, Conner trailing after him with a look of exasperation.

“Don’t mind him,” Kara says. “He’s just still mad Jason broke up with him.”

“Kara!” Jason exclaims and proceeds to cover his face with the furry paws, sinking down into the couch right beside them with a groan.

“You mean he doesn’t know, _oh_ —” Kara says and then turns beet red. “I’m sorry, Jase, I didn’t mean to—”

“To out me?” Jason moans from behind his paws.

Dick watches the whole thing, a little detached, a little strangely relieved. Now he doesn’t have to ask. But he can see Jason is incredibly embarrassed and it’s not fair to leave him feeling shamed.

“Hey, Jay, it’s okay. Gamma Epsilon doesn’t judge; after all, their president is bisexual and very out about it.” 

“Who?” Jason says as he lowers those fluffy paws before it dawns on him. “Oh.” He swallows.

“Does that bother _you_?” Dick asks.

Jason looks offended and the mood shifts. “Definitely not.”

“Good,” Dick says, letting his eyes linger on Jason’s lips for once. He doesn’t go uncaught, not by Jason and not by Kara.

The moment is broken though when the front door of the house bangs open and Dick can hear Wally and Roy’s voices both calling out for him.

“Dick Grayson!”

“Dickiebird!!”

Oh, yeah, his friends are _wasted_. Donna and Kory and Garth come spilling in behind the two gingers laughing and also drunk. Everyone’s costumes are in disarray, makeup smudged, but somehow still as beautiful as they are obnoxious.

The next hour is awash in bright lights, clown makeup, and more alcohol than Dick is used to. Someone’s puked in the downstairs bathroom so when Jason asks where the bathroom is, Dick takes him upstairs to the one in his personal bedroom, the bedroom he gets as president but only uses for late nights on campus or when Roy has someone over. He wants to make a move right then, when Jason comes out of the bathroom and he’s sitting on the bed, waiting, but the need to pee himself overtakes him and by the time he’s come out, Jason is waiting in the light of the hallway instead of the darkened room.

They wander back downstairs and a lot of the party has cleared out by then. It’s mostly a mix of the Gamma Epsilon boys from both schools with their various dates and a few lingering friends. Dick pauses on the bottom stair and points out Donna talking to Kyle in the corner, their faces both animated and knowing Donna as he does, Dick knows that if Kyle is at all sober and into girls enough, he’ll be taken back to her place tonight.

He watches as Jason’s face goes soft, his thick lips curling at the corner as he whispers, “Good for him.” It makes something leap inside Dick, knowing that Jason isn’t someone who begrudges his exes happiness.

As they make it further into the room, he sees Roy and Wally crashed over each other on the couch, on top of Kory who is stroking back Roy’s hair. Kara is talking to another cute blonde girl that Dick doesn’t recognize so she might be from Metropolis, and Conner is on his phone in a chair, looking very sleepy and a little bored.

“You think they’re all okay?” Dick asks Jason, over his shoulder, not knowing his friends well.

Jason’s stopped right behind him and his breath is hot against Dick’s neck as he says, “Yeah, they’re good. Conner’s probably talking to his girlfriend. She lives far away so they don’t see each other a lot. Kara’s trying to make that girl fall in love with her – like that’s hard.” He laughs, a small chuckle.

“You in love with her?” Dick asks, curious. He maybe bats his eyes one too many times to be appropriate, but Jason is _right there_.

He shakes his head. “I mean, she’s hot, for a girl. But Kara and Conner, they’re like family to me. If anything, I’ve always been more jealous of the attention they get, than wanting to be with them. But I love them. They’re the best. Really.”

Dick knows his smile is sappy, can’t help himself from swaying a little into Jason’s big arms. “That’s sweet. You’re a good guy, Jay.”

Jason clears his throat.

“You want to go outside?” Dick asks.

“Yeah. I could use some air,” is the response he gets, words he almost feels more than hears, Jason’s voice rumbling in his body.

They stop to grab the bottle of whiskey which Roy clearly found, based on how little is left. Jason grabs his brown leather jacket from the rack by the door. Dick tears off his wig and tosses it towards Roy’s head, giving a grin when Kory looks up, rolling her eyes at him.

When they get outside, Dick takes him around to the back of the house, around the southern style porch to the little gazebo that the chapter uses for formal nights and pictures and such. Inside is a ring of benches and it’s lit by tiny fairy lights. 

Their light washes over Jason’s features, painting him a pretty pastel. He’s lost his mitten paws at some point, but his tail peeks out between his legs, a little tuft of fur, and his ears are still on, if lopsided. He’s simultaneously gorgeous and goofy looking.

Dick’s type, totally. He sits down across from Jason. “You have fun, Jay?”

Jason tilts his head like maybe he’s considering. Or maybe he’s just drunk. “You know, I did. I’m glad I came.”

“Me too,” Dick says, soft, closing his eyes and resting it against one of the posts behind him for a moment. He opens them again and takes a small sip of whiskey, passing the bottle to Jason after who wraps his big lips around it and Dick has a momentary fantasy of those lips being wrapped somewhere else.

Jason seems to get that, the way he looks at Dick through his whole swig, the way his tongue curls out to catch an escaped drop on his lip. “Dick, I—”

“Fuck, Jason. How are you so hot?” Dick asks and oops, that’s definitely the alcohol. He slaps his hands over his mouth.

Jason only laughs, though, taking another sip of alcohol. “Funny. I was thinking the same thing. I mean, how many guys can pull off fishnets like you?”

They stare at each other, and after a bit, Dick drops his hands. He picks at his tights, dragging a hole into them. He bites his lip. “I don’t want, I mean—”

He watches as Jason’s face instantly closes up, that same brick wall he’d seen in Professor Dartmouth’s office, before they knew each other. 

“No, no. I mean. I don’t want you think this was a plan. Or like you have to. I know with tutoring and everything, and your friend outed you when you obviously didn’t mean to share with me and—”

“Dick,” Jason exhales, and when Dick looks up, it’s to see Jason on his knees between his legs, face open once more, blue-green eyes shining in the fairy lights and catching the harvest moon. With the ears on his head, he’s adorable. With the tail between his legs, he’s _hot_. “Can I?”

Dick doesn’t know what Jason is asking for, but he’s come to want anything from this secretly nerdy, hot, and kind-hearted guy. “Yeah,” is all he says.

Then he hears more than feels his fishnets rip, all the way from that little hole he started, until the hole is big enough to reach over his crotch. Jason pulls the leotard crotch out of the way, freeing Dick’s cock from all fabrics and he holds it in his hand, eyes appreciative. His tongue reaches out, getting a taste and fuck if Jason isn’t going to give him pet play kink like this. Like he’s going to be ravaged by the big bad wolf and fuck, that’s the hottest idea he’s ever had

Dick knocks off the ears, just to avoid that image.

Jason smirks like he knows.

Then the younger man gets to work, bending over Dick’s lap so that all he can see is Jason’s big hand following his mouth and a mess of loose curls. His mouth is hot and wet, and Dick lets out a not-so-subtle moan, and then moves his hand back up to his mouth to try to cover the noises.

Jason begins to suck then, teasing his tongue around the base of Dick’s cock, tracing the small vein, swirling it around the head, then bobbing back down to suck harder, to get Dick in further to that wet heat. It feels damn good and soon Dick can’t help his hips moving in small little thrusts. Jason lets him, keeping him back only when he pushes too much, too fast, then letting Dick thrust into his mouth a bit while Jason stays still and looks up at him through thick black eyelashes, those eyes half lidded from pleasure.

“God, fuck, Jay, I’m gonna—” Dick warns, and Jason pulls off, jacking him through it, cupping his other hands so come doesn’t get all over their clothes.

Not that anyone who sees Dick isn’t going to know exactly what was just happening, based on the giant hole in his crotch. He’s going to have to get out of the tights before he can go back into the house. But first—

Jason gets up off his knees and leaves the gazebo to wipe his hand on the grass. Then he comes back in and sits next to Dick, pulling his fishnet-covered legs into his lap.

“Can I—?” Dick asks but Jason shakes his head.

“You drank more than me. I don’t want you to regret this. I probably shouldn’t have done that, even.”

Dick hums, his hand coming up to play with Jason’s leather jacket. “I won’t regret it. But I get it.”

They sit for a while like that, until Dick starts shivering. Then, just like last week at their weekly café meeting, Jason slides off his jacket and wraps it around Dick. He snuggles in, grateful for the warmth and the thick smell of Jason, all patchouli and spice.

“Come on,” Jason eventually says, sounding amused. “Let’s get you to bed, hm?”

“I guess you could say we broke up—”

“Huh?” Jason asks, as he scoops Dick up like he’s nothing more than a little girl, despite Dick only being a few inches shorter than him and a guy who works out four times a week with his football and cross-country running athlete friends.

“—because of artistic differences. He saw himself as alive, and I saw him as dead,” Dick sing-songs.

Jason laughs, that deep rumble that is ultimately soothing. Dick turns into his chest. Well, this will at least hide the hole in his crotch, even if it won’t do much to dissuade rumors if anyone is still awake in the house.

“Gonna put on a show for me, Dick?” he asks soft into Dick’s hair, his breath causing the strands to flutter over Dick’s face.

“Anytime, Jay, anytime.”

~~~

Jason is sitting slumped over his computer, working on a midterm for Raznek’s Shakespeare class, or rather, attempting to, as his mind wonders off in sonnets rather than the plays as he daydreams about raven hair and tanned fingers caressing his skin.

Then, a cup of coffee is set down in front of him, startling him out of his daydream. He doesn’t even look up, just focuses in on his screen once more, trying to force his brain to work when all it wants is to call Dick and hear his voice. “Thanks, Anna,” he mumbles, grasping blindly for the mug.

“Oh, you’re so welcome, Jason,” teases a high-pitched faux female voice.

When he looks up, Dick’s smiling and aristocratic face meets him.

“Dick!” he says, practically flinging himself out of his seat, causing the table to wobble and Dick to have to catch the mug he just brought Jason from spilling.

Jason doesn’t care, just turns Dick’s face back to his the instant the mug is settled, placing his lips over Dick’s, kissing him fiercely and wetly, in the middle of Gotham U’s library café. Dick smells like the cool, crisp autumn outside, like cold stone and paperbacks and foggy mornings. He hears a snort of laughter and one round of applause from back behind the counter – Anna.

He blushes and begins to pull away, but Dick doesn’t let him go, keeping his hands tight on Jason’s hips, leaning in for a softer kiss this time.

They do pull apart eventually, honestly, probably not more than fifteen seconds later, but Jason knows he’s still blushing as they both sit. Dick is gorgeous as ever and somehow, in the months Jason hasn’t seen him except over FaceTime, he’s grown into his features more. He looks less like a frat boy and more like a young man starting his career. The lack of the snapback helps. He’s also wearing Jason’s favorite sweater, that midnight blue one, but this time paired with black slacks and a dark peacoat. He’s also wearing the gloves Jason gave him at Christmas last year, tired of hearing Dick always complain about the cold on his hands.

That makes something warm bloom inside Jason’s chest, that he’s still wearing something a college boy gave him, even when he’s off being a grown man.

“What are you doing here? Quantico kick you out?” Jason asks with a teasing wink.

“Please,” Dick scoffs. “I’m top of my class. I just wanted to see my best guy, that’s all.”

Mhm,” Jason hums, suspicious. “They don’t let you out often – what’s going on, Dick?”

“Well, it is fall break for us. We get exactly three days off before the grind starts up again.” Dick sighs, but Jason knows from their calls that he actually loves it, everything about FBI training from the early morning workouts to the competition, to the mental tests they’re put through. “And I’ll see Bruce later.

“Actually,” Dick says, and there it is, his sly tone Jason’s gotten to know over the last few months of dating. “I was wondering, I thought maybe, you’d come home with me?”

Jason’s jaw drops before he can compose himself.

“You don’t have to,” and suddenly Dick seems nervous, twisting the gloves in his hands as he takes them off, then gently pushing the coffee over at Jason. “It’s just. Well, it’s one year from when we met, kind of. I mean, a little more. But I remember, one day you were working on some kind of paper for your poetry class and you were whispering to yourself, probably talking through what you were going to say but it was something like…” Dick clears his throat. “Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart, it stays at home, and thou with losing sav'st it.”

“Donne, Love’s Infinteness,” Jason says, quiet.

“And that’s uh, that’s when I fell in love with you, I think. Even if we didn’t start dating until winter.” Dick looks down and away, a small slash of red across his cheeks.

It’s not new, not really. They’ve been saying _I love you_ on the phone for the last four months that Dick’s been in DC. But it’s different, hearing it like this, surrounded by the place they grew close, by the crisp air, the leaves changing. Autumn might signify death, but in this moment, Jason’s never felt more alive.

He reaches out a hand, catching Dick’s sleeve, and then twisting their fingers together when he gets Dick’s hand. “I’d love to meet your dad, Dick. Take me home.”

“Yeah. Yeah, Jay. And every autumn after this.”

Jason grins. “Looks like some of me is rubbing off on you. I’ve never known you to be so poetic.”

“Shut up,” Dick says, but his smile and the light in his blue eyes tells Jason everything he needs to know.

Jason sits back in his chair, suddenly inspired and takes a sip of coffee, feeling it warm him deep to the bone, and then he starts writing as Dick takes his coat off and settles in, pulling out his own laptop.

_Yet I would not have all yet,  
He that hath all can have no more,  
And since my love doth every day admit  
New growth, thou shouldst have new rewards in store._

**Author's Note:**

> Jason's poem: _Lovers' Infiniteness_ , John Donne (1571-1631)
> 
> Gamma Epsilon is made up for this story. As another note, for non-frat/sororities people and non-Americans, reputable fraternities and sororities cannot actually have alcohol on their grounds and will be at least fined if not suspended if they do and are found out. So you can either a) imagine this takes place in the 1980s before such rules went into effect or b) just know this is fiction and I did some hand waving to better serve the cliche college AU vibes.
> 
> Follow and chat with me [on tumblr](http://mf-luder-xf.tumblr.com) and/or [twitter](https://twitter.com/mf_luder_xf)!!


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